Texan Wins Tour for 2nd Time

A Paris style 'bistro rustico' in the
Marais.

Friday Roller Rando Banned

Paris:- Sunday, 23. July 2000:- Today was two
kinds of great day in Paris as large parts of major traffic
arteries were closed for the 'stroll' of 12,000 cyclists
over a large part of the Tour de France's route; followed
by the final stage of this year's Tour de France.

While crowds were not great at the Pont d'Iéna
starting point below the Tour Eiffel for the amateur bike
fans at 8:30 this morning, they were in their usual large
numbers on the Champs-Elysées in the afternoon for
the arrival of the Tour, or the 'Big Loop' as it is loosely
called.

At 9:20, Merckx, Hinault and Indurain, former multiple
winners of the Tour, arrived at the finishing line - of
what was supposed to be a non-race.

The youngest participant was 13 and the oldest was 89.
Some of the 'competitors' carried passengers who were
younger than 13, and others did the 'Little Loop' on
tandems.

For the arrival of the Tour itself, many Americans were
on hand to see the victor, Lance Armstrong from Austin,
Texas, win his second Tour de France riding for the US
Postal Service team.

These included his wife, Kristin, who had quite a lot to
say to French TV-news in French, and nine-month old Luke
who made no noticeable comments.

Lance Armstrong participated in the Tour de France for
the first time in 1993. Despite a bout with cancer, which slowed down his ambition for two
years, Armstrong's motto remains, "Kicking ass and making a
name for myself!"

Seconds after 8:30 this morning, on
the Pont d'Iéna, the quiet horde advances.

One of his European team-mates characterized him as a
'Yankee' bulldozer' - without realizing that this might not
be appreciated in Texas - with a "Brain of Steel" - which
might more than acceptable to other Texans.

After the Yellow Shirt for Armstrong, Erik Zabel
captured the second-place Green Shirt for Deutsche Telekom
and the Columbian Santiago Botero of the Kelme-Costa Blanca
team got the Red polka-dot Shirt for third place.

Kelme-Costa Blanca was also the over-all winning team.
Francisco Mancebo captured the White Shirt in the
young-rider category and he rode for Banesto.

The 87th edition of the Tour de France was thought by
some to have been the best in at least a decade; or at
least since Greg LeMond snatched victory from Laurent
Fignon by eight seconds.

After 21 stages over 3660 kilometres, the 128 surviving
riders of this years' Tour and its entire rolling circus,
can go on holiday. So can everybody else too.

Roller
Rando Banned

A week ago the famous Friday night roller rando through
the evening streets of Paris was canceled, and a smaller
'rando' normally held on Sundays was also canceled.

This was the result of a disagreement between the
organizers of the two randos and Paris' police prefecture.
According to a decree by the prefecture made on Monday, 3.
July, only four pre-defined routes could be used for the
randos.

The prefecture, which was also the world's first to
create a unit of 'roller-flics,' felt it had to impose some
legality on the activity of wheeled citizens in Paris.

The police explained that an emergency ambulance had
been held up because a Friday night rando horde had blocked
an intersection by taking 30 minutes to get through it.

These 'randos' have long been escorted by the
roller-cops, motorcycle cops and police in cars as well as
emergency ambulances - all presumably equipped with radios
- and the routes followed have not been totally random. The
organizers have always proposed routes in advance in order
to have police security present.

The two sets of organizers say that they can't accept
the four routes decreed, and predicted that 'savage' randos
would be the result.

They called for a suspension of the decree until roller
problems in general can be discussed. While
waiting for an answer, they declared they would not
organize or accompany future randos.

All the same, they also maintained the time of 22:00 on
Friday and the Place de l'Italie as the meeting
point.

In the first corner, there was more than a
little jam.

Last Friday at the appointed time and place, the
organizers announced to those assembled there that the
night's rando was canceled that evening.

The roller-folk present - estimated at 10,000 by the
organizers and between 3000 and 4000 by police - were asked
to disperse by the Pari-Roller organizers - on the
sidewalks, but not all listened to this request.

The resulting rando 'savage' led to a kiss-and-make-up
on Saturday, which allowed the Sunday edition of the rando
- which had 6000 - 10,000 according to the organizers -
onto the streets and through the barricades put in place
for the final stage of the Tour de France.

Apparently, the prefecture has again agreed to consider
the routes proposed by the two groups of organizers.

All of this is the visible part of a long-lasting
scrimmage to wrest control of Paris' streets away from
four-or-more-wheeled traffic.

Lanes uniquely for buses have found many places on Paris
pavements, and after years of agitation bicyclists have
finally been permitted to use them too.

The citizens on rollers present a special problem
because they are not legally allowed on either sidewalks or
on the streets. There is simply no law concerning where
roller traffic may operate.

And there is no definition of the roller-folks' status.
Are they pedestrians on wheels or are they
traffic?

Blow Up the Factory!

This is the threat that was used to impress the media
when workers recently occupied a factory that management
had decided to shut for good.

The entire work force in Northeastern France faced
layoffs for 'economic reasons.' Normally, when a business
ceases operations, if it is broke, there is a fund that
steps in to pay off workers - usually what they could
expect if they were retired normally.

But even in normal circumstances these sums are not
great. In the case of Cellatex, its geographic location in
Givet in the Ardennes, would condemn its former employees
to permanent unemployment, or they would be forced to move
elsewhere.

So the 153 employees said they were going to blow
up the factory, which seemed to have enough chemicals in it
to do it. But after two days of non-stop negotiations both
sides gave in a bit, and the workers were promised a
90,000-franc 'layoff bonus.'

After sorting out the
first corner, there they go!

Earlier in the week, the angry employees created a
mega-media flap by releasing some sulfuric acid into a
local creek. It looked very dangerous to the media because
it was bright red.

In Thursday's editions Le Parisien wondered if the
Celletex were creating a dangerous precedent with their
threatened 'eco-terrorism.'

By Saturday this was reality when the workers at the
Adelshoffen brewery in Schiligheim, in a similar situation,
threatened to blow up the brewery with 15,000 litres of gas
on hand.

I don't know if brewery gas is capable of this, but
Schiligheim is a suburb of Strasbourg, and is definitely
not in some lost corner of France that is more surrounded
by Belgium than other suburbs.

Summer Sales Almost
Over

The summer sales began in Paris on Tuesday, 27. June and
continue to early August. Be quick because the deadline is
approaching - even if there isn't anything really good
left. If you miss out, start haunting all the discount
clothing places - to maybe get even lower prices.

Web
Life In France:

Big Smiles

The huge Internet conglomo Vivendi was reported to have
paid the three operators of a modest Internet service named
'Vis-a-Vis' 24 million francs to not bother Vivendi about
its 'Vizzavi' service, which it launched some six-odd
months after the 'Vis-a-Vis' name was registered.

'Vis-a-Vis' is the name of a cybercafé located in
the Chapelle area and it was set up for conducting
online video-conferencing between Paris and Dakar as well
as other locations in Africa. It is run by two longtime
multimedia journalists, and their Web guy is a former
spokesman for the 'Sans-Papiers.'

More normal sports
activity; this time in the Marais.

In addition to paying each of the founders eight million
francs, Vivendi reportedly agreed not to contest the
'Vis-a-Vis' name; and the three smilers agreed not to talk
a lot about the deal.

'Vizzavi' is Vivendi's brand-name for a portal that is
supposed to unite portable phone, TV and Internet access
services. Due to what has already been paid, I don't think
Vivendi is in the market for a new name for their fledgling
'portal.'

Only Smiles

I read the explanation and then I looked at the Web
site. I am so hard-boiled that it wasn't until I was about
to quit - there's no gags! - that I realized all the images
had a smile of one sort or another; without one stupid
'Smiley.' Where is this marvel? Try the Musée du
Sourire today, before your hair turns out to be having
a bad day.

Snap-Shot Gallery

This is meant to put you off by pretending to be
trivial, but its French name is 'La Galerie de
l'Instant' which might make you think of throw-away
photos and throw-away cameras. Neither are the case; a
simple collection, simply presented - not eye-candy but
photos to look at for a little bit or more.

Repeat:
Summer Festivals

Take a look at the Ministry of Culture's Web site for
the section "Organismes" and then look for the Festivals
category, and should find nearly 1000 events on this summer
throughout France. These are classified by regions, themes
or key-words and the information is updated weekly with
addresses and telephone numbers. There are also some links
to additional information.

Forever: Paris' Peace
Wall

This still leaves the URL for Paris' Peace Wall which I
imagine is still on the Champ de Mars. If so, this
'Mur Pour la
Paix' is worthwhile because 'Peace' lives on! You can
also learn how to read the word 'peace' in 31 languages,
including Texan.